Last week, I ventured out on the ice of Lake Mendota as Ted Bier, senior research specialist for the North Temperate Lakes Long Term Ecological Research study (LTER), drilled through the ice to take samples in the open water below. Bier mentioned that the ice, at 17 centimeters thick, was thinner than usual, but I …
(Go Here to see Slideshow) On February 22nd, Ted Bier, senior research specialist for the North Temperate Lakes Long Term Ecological Research study (LTER) and Dave Harring, the Center for Limnology’s facility manager, walked a few hundred meters off shore onto the Lake Mendota ice to take a battery of samples for the LTER. The …
Well, that’s one way of getting rid of surplus sodium. Thankfully, what is/isn’t an appropriate use of our freshwater lakes seems to have evolved a bit since the late 1940’s. The unfortunate scene of this science experiment is Lake Lenore in eastern Washington State. While the effusive narrator states “the alkali lake is devoid of …
I recently spent an afternoon with the Ecology of Fishes class. Check out the video below!
Thanks to our friends at the UW–Madison archives, the forefather of modern limnology, E.A. Birge, is on YouTube! For your viewing pleasure, We present this 30 second silent film of Birge in his campus lab circa 1929. E.A. Birge in his lab, circa 1929
Several years ago, Jon Temte, a professor in the UW–Madison Department of Family Medicine, got interested in the variation of flu season from year to year in Wisconsin. He brought an undergraduate student into the study and began to have her look at all sorts of long-term datasets, from the dates of major winter holidays …
We here at the CFL have been eagerly awaiting word so we could anoint the winner of our annual Lake Mendota “Ice On” pool. Well, the state climatology office has made it official – our fair lake finally donned its winter mantle of ice on January 14th. (Congrats are in order to payroll and benefits …
When most people think of eels, they immediately turn their thoughts to the ocean. Perhaps, even, to the “electrical” variety. But there was a time in this country when eels inhabited nearly every river and stream east of the Mississippi. The American eel spawns in a region of the Atlantic Ocean called the Sargasso Sea. …
An interesting scene has been playing out in Lake Mendota lately. Right outside the doors to Hasler Lab, common loons and common mergansers are busy fishing all day long. In January, this is undoubtedly easier than in the summer. Low productivity in the lake means crystal clear waters and the cold temperatures mean sluggish fish. …
The round goby has dramatically altered Great Lake food webs since it was first discovered in Lake St. Clair in 1990. But the aggressive invasive has spread beyond the blue borders of our Great Lakes. What might gobies mean for the tributaries and streams they are now colonizing? The UW Sea Grant Institute put together …